The House that Jack Built

and that Don designed can be further discovered by selecting the link, "Award Winning Round House," under the section entitled "Articles about the Architect." Here you can listen to a podcast taped by PrarieMod in which Jack Mayes talks about the Round House.

The Round House was published in "House and Home" magazine. Quoting an AIA archivist whom I communicated with in 2007,

"The AIA cosponsored the Homes for Better Living Awards with House & Home magazine for many years. Life magazine was also a cosponsor in the earliest years. The awards were divided into categories, for custom homes or development homes. The awards were announced in House & Home. Attached is a copy of the announcement of your father’s winning house from the July 1958 issue of House & Home."


Quoting the article about The Round House, an AIA judge said, "This house is extremley well handled. It works with shapes not easy to build because our building shapes are fundamentally rectangular. But if Frank Lloyd Wright had never been born, we would all look at this house and say that this fellow is really going to get someplace. The danger and difficulty of the design is that too often the student gets lost trying to do it like the master."

But, Don developed a tradition of his own, with strong influences from his "second father," Mr. Wright.


Like the Gustafson home, The Round House went the way of the wrecking ball. . .prime real estate is both a blessing and a curse. . .

Photos by Jim Herrlin, Barrington, Illinois